


Undone

by islndgurl777



Series: whom the fates have mark'd [1]
Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Canon Compliant until the end of s1 finale, Fix-It of Sorts, Multi, Red String of Fate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2020-03-06 05:14:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18844366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/islndgurl777/pseuds/islndgurl777
Summary: Maria has been able to see the strings for as long as she can remember. According to her mother, her eyes followed them everywhere even when she was a baby, so even then Mimi knew Maria had inherited her grandmother’s unique gift of Sight.





	Undone

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently I like to write from Maria's POV and I also like it when she and Michael bro it up. Go figure.
> 
> Thanks to msmerlin for looking this over. Title from Weezer.

Maria has been able to see the strings for as long as she can remember. According to her mother, her eyes followed them everywhere even when she was a baby, so even then Mimi knew Maria had inherited her grandmother’s unique gift of Sight.

 

Before she starts school, the only one she has is a thick, green string that leads straight to her mother. When she asks about their string, her mother tells her green is for families, and their connection is a strong one.

 

“What about the other colors?” She has seen many different colored strings connecting peoples’ wrists throughout town, not just green ones.

 

Mimi smiles and reaches down to squeeze her hand. “Your grandmama told me red is love, and blue is for the best of friends. You’ll have some of those too, someday.”

 

“How come I don’t have them now?” Maria asks with a pout, twisting her hands in front of her face to see if she had somehow missed a string or two wrapped around her wrist.

 

“You do,” her mother replies. “You just can’t see them because you haven’t met them yet.”

 

/

 

Maria meets Liz Ortecho and Alex Manes when she starts kindergarten, and she is connected to each of them with a bright blue string. They are her first friends and she knows instantly she will love them forever. She meets Liz’s older sister, Rosa, a few weeks later, when she goes to Liz’s house to play after school, and they are connected with a blue string too. Maria is ecstatic to have found so many friends.

 

She spends time every evening stroking the proof of her friendships around her wrist, eyes following where they lead off through the walls of her room toward Liz, Rosa, and Alex.

 

/

 

“Mama, what’s a gold string mean?” Maria asks, biting her tongue as she works on a particularly difficult math problem at their kitchen table.

 

Mimi pauses in the act of putting in an earring and says, voice shaking, “Baby, where did you see a gold string?”

 

Maria looks up, heart pounding at her mother’s tone. She looks scared, and no matter how hard things have been for them, her mom has never looked scared before. “I…” Her throat is dry, so she swallows. This also gives her a second to think. She has always been honest with her mother, has never lied to her about anything important, and the strings are very important. “I saw them from a couple of kids at school today,” she says. Not a lie. She pulls her long sleeves even tighter over her wrists, though she knows her mother can’t see the strings.

 

Mimi lets out a shaky breath and nods slowly, eyes flicking to track her thoughts as they race through her head. “Children?” She shakes her head and locks her eyes on to Maria. She steps toward her and kneels down, taking her hands. “Don’t tell me who. I can’t know. Nobody can. Do you understand, baby?”

 

Maria nods, confused. “Yes? Is gold bad, Mama? Should I warn them?” Should she warn Liz?

 

“No!” her mother says loudly, rubbing Maria’s arms soothingly when she jumps. “No, don’t tell them. Don’t tell anyone. You have to promise me you won’t tell  _ anyone _ , Maria. Especially Al--your friends.”

 

Her love for Liz battles with her love for her mother. “But if the gold strings are bad--”

 

Mimi shakes her head and smiles tightly. “I don’t think they are, baby. They’re just...different.” Her eyebrows furrow and she says to Maria, but also kind of to herself, “Different isn’t always bad, right?”

 

This is a truth Maria knows very well. “Right,” she says with a solemn nod.

 

Mimi nods and squeezes her shoulders, then stands back up to continue getting ready to go in to work for the evening, though her movements are stilted, like she’s still thinking about what Maria said.

 

Maria stares at her math homework and thinks about the two Evans kids and the gold strings that link one of them to Liz and the other to her. She decides to stay away, just to be safe, and to convince Liz to do the same.

 

/

 

Liz does her best to befriend Max Evans, though he and his sister are weirdly codependent. Maria doesn’t trust the gold strings despite her mother’s assurance they are not bad, so she does not hang out with Liz when she’s with Max. She’s afraid of running into Isobel and finding out what the gold string means.

They start middle school and a new boy shows up one day who instantly gravitates to the Evans’. They all share the same blue-green strings which indicate they are friends as well as family. The new boy’s name is Michael Guerin and he also has a gold string that connects to Alex and a blue one that connects to her. Maria is not pleased with the development, so she stays away from Michael too.

 

/

 

When Rosa dies, the blue string that connects her to Maria is cut, and Maria is left with a single thread of broken blue bracelet wrapped around her wrist.

 

/

 

It takes a while for her to notice the blue-green thread Guerin shares with Max Evans has faded to just green, though the one he shares with Isobel is still the same blue-green.

 

It takes her even longer to notice the blue one she shares with Guerin becoming thicker, stronger over the years with the amount of time they spend sniping at each other over the bar at the Wild Pony.

 

She’s not ready to acknowledge the purple tint it has taken on by the time their ten year high school reunion comes around.

 

She’s definitely not ready to acknowledge it when they’re in Texas, though she sleeps with him anyways, because she likes him and she’s had a terrible day and he always makes her feel better.

 

/

 

Michael is Museum Guy. Alex is in love with Museum Guy, who is Michael, who is the guy he shares a gold string with.

 

Liz and Max are in love, but they don’t share a red string, they share a gold one.

 

All these years, and she still doesn’t know what a gold string means, but given these two instances, she can guess it’s not for passing acquaintances.

 

/

 

Michael holds her close, protecting her after she wakes up drugged at the UFO Emporium. He runs his fingers through her hair and she catches sight of their purple string wrapped around his wrist, right next to the gold one he shares with Alex. She wishes with all her heart it was a blue string next to gold, or even no string, but she’s learned over the course of her life that’s not how the strings work.

 

/

 

Michael comes to see her a few days later before the bar opens and he looks...manic. Something has happened to him since the gala, and he looks ready to shatter. She allows him to stay because of the purple thread that connects them, but she does not allow him to kiss her because of the gold one that connects him to Alex and what she thinks it might mean.

 

She eyes his previously-injured hand as he plays, her mind flooded with questions that stop abruptly when he drops the guitar and bends over, groaning in pain. She watches in horror as the green string that connects him to Max abruptly snaps, tying itself into a bracelet around his wrist.

 

At the same time, her blue bracelet unwinds and lengthens, shooting off through the wall of the bar.

 

“Max,” Michael groans out, clutching his chest in pain.

 

“What the fuck,” Maria says, clutching her wrist near the end of Rosa’s string.

 

/

 

“Start talking, Guerin!” she yells, slamming her hand on the wheel as she follows his directions out into the desert while he groans pathetically in the seat next to her.

 

“Max is dead,” he says, looking like he’s about to puke all over her front seat.

 

“I know!” she says. “And Rosa’s alive! I repeat: what the fuck!”

 

He groans and leans over to rest his forehead on her shoulder. “How do you know that?”

 

“I see the strings, same as you!” she says, taking a turn to follow Rosa’s blue string--which seems to be heading the same direction as Liz’s and Isobel’s--deeper into the desert.

 

“What strings?” he asks, pulling a bottle of nail polish remover out of his pocket. Weird. And then he uncaps it and brings the bottle to his lips.

 

To which she screeches, “What the fuck!” And she tries to bat it out of his hand with the arm he’s leaning on.

 

“It’s fine, DeLuca! I’m an alien!” Her eyes widen and she slams on the brakes. Michael throws out an arm to keep himself from flying through the windshield and glares over at her. “Like you didn’t already know!”

 

“I didn’t!” she yells, slamming her hands on the steering wheel again. “How could I have possibly known that?!”

 

He narrows his eyes at her and inhales slowly. He brings the bottle back up to his lips to drink and she reaches forward again to take it from him. He leans out of her reach and swallows a few mouthfuls. His color looks better almost instantly. “I might actually believe you,” he says finally.

 

She rolls her eyes and starts driving again, navigating through the desert in the direction of their strings. “Gee, thanks.”

 

“How do you know where to go? How did you know Max was dead?” Michael asks, taking another sip. “And what makes you think Rosa’s alive?”

 

Maria sighs and shakes her head. She’s never told anyone about the strings; she’d promised her mother. But this is not something she’s prepared to handle on her own, and it seems like Guerin and the others might know more about. She pulls up next to Liz’s car, which is parked haphazardly at the top of a steep hill, right next to Isobel Evans’ car. She turns to look over at him and says, “If she’s really alive, and if Max is really dead, we’re going to have a lot more important things to discuss, Guerin.”

 

He holds her gaze for a long time before he gives in and nods. They exit the truck and start making their way down the hill toward a cave. As they near it, she hears Liz’s heaving sobs and Isobel arguing with…Maria takes a shuddering breath because the voice sounds too good to be true, and she’s refused to believe it even though she’s never known the strings to lie.

 

She rushes in before Guerin, eyes falling on Rosa instantly. She’s wrapped in a blanket, sitting on a rock and pointing up at Isobel, yelling, “...stole my bag! When I asked you about it that night, you--” Rosa stops, eyes widening when she sees Maria standing behind Isobel.

 

Maria moves closer, making room for Guerin to step around her towards-- “Oh no,” she says as she sees Max, splayed out on the floor of the cave.

 

Liz is performing CPR on him, her eyes streaming with tears, breaths hiccoughing out of her. She turns instantly to Michael and says, “Help me keep compressions going. I’m waiting for Kyle to bring a defibrillator.”

 

He kneels next to her and shakes his head. “Liz, he’s dead,” he says gently, reaching to pull her away.

 

“No! He’s not dead!” she screams, a sob wrenching free. Maria’s eyes fill with tears. “He’s not dead! He’s not!” Liz swings toward him with one fist while the other still presses down on Max’s sternum.

 

Maria’s gaze is drawn to her wrist and she shakes her head, rubbing the tears from her eyes as she breathes out, “Oh my God.”

 

Isobel, eyes red with tears streaming down her face, turns to look at her in confusion. “What are you doing here?”

 

Maria ignores her and kneels down on the other side of Max, eyes following the length of gold string that is still whole, connecting his wrist to Liz’s. “That’s not possible,” she whispers, fingers reaching out to touch, even though the strings are not corporeal. 

 

Only, as her fingers near the string, it grows brighter, and Liz gasps out a uninhibited, hopeful, “Max!”

 

Max doesn’t move, doesn’t respond, and Liz’s eyebrows furrow, even as she continues compressions on his chest. “What just happened?” she asks. Her eyes follow Maria’s hands, hovering over Max’s chest. “Maria, what did you do?”

 

“I--” she says, shaking her head again. “I touched your string,” she says, though she knows no one will know what that means. She locks eyes with Guerin and says, “Michael, help her keep up with compressions. Max isn’t dead yet.”

 

Michael holds eye contact with her for several seconds, trying to figure out if she’s telling the truth. Liz lets out a sob as he nods and takes over. Isobel yells, “What do you mean, he’s not dead? I felt him die!”

 

Maria stands up and turns to her, eyeing the blue-green bracelet around her wrist that used to connect her to her brother. “I believe you did, but…” She lets out a laughing sob as she shakes her head and says, “I think he’s only  _ mostly _ dead.”

 

Isobel’s jaw drops and the cave is silent for a long moment before she steps toward Maria, fists clenched at her side. “Did you just quote a movie at me while my brother is lying dead at your feet?”

 

She holds eye contact with Isobel, lifts her chin, and shrugs. “It’s the truth.”

 

Isobel takes several long breaths, eyes on fire, and Maria wonders when she’s going to take a swing at her. Finally, Isobel breaks eye contact to look over at Michael. “I’ll wait for Valenti outside. Call me back in if you need to swap places.” Michael nods and Isobel sweeps out past Maria and Rosa.

 

Maria meets Rosa’s eyes again, then tilts her head toward Liz; they will deal with one thing at a time. Rosa nods in agreement and steps back, gesturing Maria forward.

 

She kneels down again with Liz, Michael and Max. Liz meets her eyes over Max’s body and says, “Thank you. How did you know…?” She gestures to Max, Rosa, the cave.

 

Maria reaches for Liz and Max’s string again in answer. When her fingers brush it, Liz shudders and places both hands on Max’s chest, right above where Michael continues to press up and down. “That’s your fate string,” Maria says. “I see the strings of fate that connect living people, and this one connects the two of you. So he’s not dead yet.”

 

Liz shakes her head, “I don’t...I don’t understand. What’s a fate string?”

 

Maria glances over as Kyle rushes into the cave carrying a bag in one hand and a portable defibrillator in the other. Isobel and Alex follow close behind, and all are talking at once. Maria looks over at Liz and says, “I’ll explain it later. For right now, I’m going to step back and let Kyle do what he does best, okay?”

 

Liz nods and looks back down at Max while Maria steps back and helps clear the area so Liz, Kyle, and Michael can work to save Max’s life.

 

/

 

It’s after dark by the time she puts her truck into park near the back entrance of the Wild Pony, directly next to Guerin’s. She lets out a long, slow breath and leans forward to rest her head on the steering wheel.

 

“Thank you,” Michael says, voice rough in the seat next to her.

 

She nods and takes another slow breath, eyes closing. “I’d say ‘anytime’, but I really don’t want to have to go through something like that again, so if all of you could refrain from dying soon, that would be great.”

 

He huffs out a laugh and they listen to the soft clicking of her engine as it cools down. Finally, he says, “Tell me about the strings.”

 

She opens her eyes and turns her head to look at him, hidden in the dark corner of the cab of her truck. “Your brother--who is an alien, as are you--nearly just died to bring my best friend back to life after ten years dead, and you want to talk about the strings of fate?”

 

He smirks and leans forward, out of the shadows and into the light cast by the bar sign he fixed for her. “Well, the alien thing isn’t a shock to me, and we’re all meeting tomorrow to talk about Rosa, so really, the only thing left is your thing. Strings of fate?”

 

She rolls her eyes and sits up with a sigh. “We’re going to need alcohol for this,” she says, shoving her door open and slamming it shut behind her. She starts for the back door without waiting for him to follow.

 

He catches up to her just before the door swings shut behind her and follows her through the back to her office. “Wait here,” she says, closing him in. He sits on the couch in her office and she comes back a minute later with a bottle of tequila and two shot glasses.

 

She pours them both a shot, they toast and drink, and she starts. “The strings connect people who are fated to mean something to each other, as far as I can figure. They’re different colors, based on the relationship, and they only break when one person dies. I knew Max had died because the string connecting you to him broke while I was watching you play. I knew Rosa was somehow alive again because my bracelet for her suddenly regrew a length of string to connect me to her.”

 

He takes the bottle from her and pours them each another shot. “But Max wasn’t dead. You said his and Liz’s string was still there.”

 

They each drink their shot and Maria says, “I’ve never seen that happen before. Then again, I have never seen anyone else with a gold string before either. Maybe it’s an alien thing?”

 

Michael stares down at his shot glass and twists it around to catch the light. “What are normal human colors?” he says, voice quiet.

 

Maria plucks his shot glass from his fingers and refills them this time. “Red for love, blue for friends, green for family.” She hands him his shot and they both drink before she reaches for his wrist. “Blue-green for family who are also friends,” she says, fingers pressing into a string. “Can you feel that? It’s the string you share with Isobel.”

 

He watches her fingers at his wrist and furrows his brow. “No.”

 

“And your newly-fixed green one with Max,” she says, pressing her fingers through it.

 

He shakes his head.

 

She nods and reaches for the purple one she shares with him. “What about this one?”

 

He shakes his head again. “No. Which one is that?”

 

She smiles sadly and meets his eyes. “It’s ours. Purple for fated friends who love each other.”

 

His pulse jumps under her fingers and his eyes jerk to hers. “Maria, I…” he trails off, shaking his head. 

 

“It’s okay,” she says softly. She twists his wrist a little to see where his gold string trails off into the distance and reaches out for it.

 

Michael sucks in a breath and closes his eyes. He shudders and says, “Which one was that?”

 

Maria squeezes his wrist, away from his strings, and says dryly, “Guess.”

 

“Alex.” He breathes his name out so quietly she strains to hear it, and his breath shudders as he does so.

 

“Hmmm,” she agrees. 

 

He opens his eyes and says, “That’s the alien one?”

 

She shrugs. “I suppose. I’ve never seen gold except the three of you, so it could be an alien thing.”

 

His eyes sharpen. “The three of us? So Isobel has a gold string too? Was it to Noah? Is hers broken now that he’s dead?”

 

Her eyes widen. “Noah’s dead?”

 

Michael nods. “He’s the one who killed Rosa. He was an alien too.”

 

Maria sucks in a breath and shakes her head. “What?”

 

“We just found out a couple weeks ago,” he tells her. “Was he Isobel’s gold string?”

 

Maria shakes her head. “No. They weren’t connected by a string at all, which I always found strange given how perfect they seemed when they were out in public. Until I saw him picking up women at the Wild Pony.”

 

He nods and says, “Well, do you know who hers is connected to? Maybe if we knew that, we’d know what the gold string means.”

 

Heart pounding, she shakes her head. “No,” she lies. Because given Max and Liz, and given Michael and Alex, it seems pretty clear to her what the gold strings are fated to mean.

 

And she’s not about to admit to anyone Isobel’s gold string leads straight to her.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I have ideas on how to expand this AU, but idk when I will get to them. If you have any ideas, leave them in the comments, or send me a message on tumblr (same name: islndgurl777).


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